California
The "Okies and Arkies" were migrant farmers moving from Oklahoma (Okie), Arkansas (Arkie), and Texas to California during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.
The Okies and it didn't matter if you were born and raised in Kansas.
Most Californians at the time would have considered the Okies as a burden to society. The sudden influx of Okies into California caused taxes to go up, and increased competition for jobs. For these reasons, Okies faced a lot of discrimination.
they traveled because of the dust bowls.
California
Migrant farm workers who left the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression to seek work elsewhere were known as Okies, a term generally used to represent people from Oklahoma. During the Great Depression, the term was used to refer to people from neighboring states of Oklahoma in an offensive way. The farmers and their families traveled to California, where they were hired as migrant workers for 20 to 25-cents per hour to pick crops.
During the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl states were suffering from dust and debris damage to their crops as well as property. Many people fled to California and other states. These migrant workers were called Okies, since most from Oklahoma.
The "Okies and Arkies" were migrant farmers moving from Oklahoma (Okie), Arkansas (Arkie), and Texas to California during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.
The Okies and it didn't matter if you were born and raised in Kansas.
Residents of 'Okievilles' were called Okies. Okievilles were shanty towns built to house the throngs of migrant workers from Oklahoma.
Most Okies migrated to California
It effected California because they had to worry about the Okies. They truly hated the Okies. They even called them cuss words and dumb okies. Okie children had a hard time in public schools. They got in a lot of fights just because of who they were. That is pretty sad!
The Okies were migrants from Oklahoma who moved to California during the Great Depression in the 1930s seeking better economic conditions. Refugees typically come from countries experiencing conflict, persecution, or other crises and seek asylum or resettlement in safer regions.
The farmers who worked the Great Plains had been breaking up the sod and soil on the plain states since the time of the Homestead Act. Poor farming techniques and years of depleting the soil led to the soil becoming susceptible to the winds. The loss of agricultural production helped to lengthen the Depression, not only in the US but worldwide. The displaced farmers (known as Okies) became the migrants described in John Steinbeck's, Grapes of Wrath. Families from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada and Arkansas, packed what they could in cars and trucks and headed west. Most were aiming for California where they would become a class of migrant farmers, following the crops during the harvesting season.
Okies
As WWII started, many of the migrant workers during the years of the Great Depression either joined the military or took advantage of the jobs that were opening up because of the need for war material. Many of the "Okies" that came to California found jobs in the shipyards and defense plants on the west coast. The migrant farmers, grouped into the term "Okie," found a more stable lifestyle and families put down roots in California and other western states, like New Mexico and Arizona. Their descendants continue to live there today. The type of farming that caused the migrant "farmer" to find work continues today but most commercial farms now hire migrant workers and many provide temporary shelter at the work sites during the season. Many of these jobs have been taken over by immigrants from nations south of the border, both legal and illegal, which has helped add to the current national debate over what the government should do about our current immigration laws.